What is OPC Server Development?

An OPC Sever is a software application that acts as an API (Application Programming Interface) or protocol converter. An OPC Server will connect to a device such as a PLC, DCS, RTU, etc or a data source such as a database, HMI, etc and translate the data into a standard-based OPC format. OPC compliant applications such as an HMI, historian, spreadsheet, trending application, etc can connect to the OPC Server and use it to read and write device data. An OPC Server is analogous to the roll a printer driver plays to enable a computer to communicate with an ink jet printer. An OPC Server is based on a Server/Client architecture.

There are many OPC Server Development toolkits available for developing your own OPC Server; MatrikonOPC's Rapid OPC Creation Kit (ROCKit) is one of it and enables quick OPC Server development. ROCKit offers a flexible and affordable solution that enables programmers to fully control their own product.

OPC ROCKit packages the complete OPC interface into a single DLL, eliminating the need to learn the complexities of Microsoft COM, DCOM or ATL. A developer simply writes the communication protocol routines for the underlying device and ROCKit takes care of the OPC issues.

Features include:

- Fully compliant with OPC DA 1.0a, 2.05 and 3.0 specifications.
- Free threading model on Windows NT, 2000 and XP platforms.
- Supports self-registration, browsing, data quality reporting, and timestamps.
- Can be used as a stand-alone server or as a service.
- In-proc server design for high-performance communication.
- Sample application code and comprehensive documentation illustrating how to use the ROCKit.
- OPC Explorer client that exercises the OPC COM interface for testing and debugging your server.
- The interface to the Device Specific Plug-in application code is separate from the OPC COM interface code. This means that future OPC source code updates are simply plugged in, while your own protocol code remains untouched, resulting in minimal engineering effort.